The invention relates to a wall, either metallic or not, particularly for aeronautical structures, such as seal-tight tanks, and to a method for making such a wall.
There is nowadays found an increasing need, in particular for producing parallelepiped tanks in the aeronautical field, of having wall components with an important stiffness in a plurality of different directions. To meet with these requirements, it is known to use sheets that are reinforced by profiled members, typically in an xcexa9 shape, that are placed in a parallel way or in a crossed configuration.
These walls have a main drawback in that they have an important thickness, which decreases the useful space when related to tanks made by assembling such walls, and in that they have nevertheless an insufficient mechanical strength when they are exposed to high stresses due to a discontinuity in their moment of inertia, caused by an alternation of the profiled members and base surface alone.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a wall which overcomes the drawbacks of known walls.
For reaching the above purpose, a wall according to the invention is characterized in that it comprises two plates which are connected, in connecting zones, to predetermined places that are distributed on their surfaces, and in that portions of at least one plate, placed between the connecting zones, are outwardly bulged.
According to one feature of the invention, the connecting zones are made by spot welding, ultrasound welding, gluing, brazing, riveting, and the like.
According to one feature of the invention, edges of the plates are connected for forming zones for fixing the wall to a support structure.
According to another feature of the invention, stiffness of the wall is variable by a choice of a number and spacing of the connecting zones and/or a choice of a degree of bulging of the plate.
According to still another feature of the invention, an interval between the walls is filled with a product of specific properties, such as a thermally or acoustically isolating product or a non-inflammable product, or a mechanically suitable product.
The method for making such a wall is characterized in that a bulging of the plates between the connecting zones is made through injection between the plates of a pressurized fluid.
According to another feature of the invention, connection of the plate is made by spot welding, ultrasound welding, gluing, brazing, riveting and the like.